


All Kinds of Hell

by gaeger16



Category: Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Blood and Gore, Explicit Language, Gen, Heavy Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Killing, No Romance, No Smut, Survival, The story is centered on the kids, Zombies, the dads are either missing or dead or zombies who knows
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-16
Updated: 2017-10-01
Packaged: 2018-12-30 09:35:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12105840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaeger16/pseuds/gaeger16
Summary: "It’s been a few months since the very first wave hit. A virus had broken out, slowly spreading across different places, affecting different people. After some time, the virus had died down; lesser people were affected, yet the cure to the disease became a lot more impossible to reach, which caused more and more deaths of those who were severely affected. The facility shut itself down completely after the anti-virus uproar. Millions of people had protested against the lab facility closing itself off, to which the military had responded by intruding the facility itself, only to be met by unexpected circumstances…""Possible last wave to hit: Maple Bay"Lucien wakes up in their basement after what seems to be a long period of time, only to find his house and the rest of the cul-de-sac area turned into some kind of ghost town. Everyone, especially his dad, was missing. He was all alone, walking through the empty streets of Maple Bay.Or was he?





	1. "Mama, We all go to Hell"

Chapter 1

_It’s been a few months since the very first wave hit. A virus had broken out, slowly spreading across different places, affecting different people. The effects of the virus quickly shifted from being minor to severe. Everyone who was affected had to experience a minor cold or fever for the first few days. But right after, the effects would worsen, practically weakening your immune system. After only a few weeks, people from all across the state had been experiencing the effects of the virus that caused almost the entire population to be bed-bound. In just a month, the virus quickly spread through different states across the entire country. A high number of hospitals and facilities were entirely vacated._

_After some time, the virus had died down; lesser people were affected, yet the cure to the disease became a lot more impossible to reach, which caused more and more deaths of those who were severely affected. Trusted lab facilities were given permission to use some of the selected corpses for further inspection. Researchers were able to trace some of the primary components of the virus through examining the corpses’ anatomy and were able to formulate an anti-virus content that could possibly sustain one’s bodily functions to defend itself from any other effects that may worsen a patient’s condition, if the virus was still intact. The research had backfired upon them._

_Once the anti-virus was set to test upon affected patients, the antidote’s specific purpose altered the expected results to curing the selected individuals. Instead of slowly killing off the virus from within, the antidote quickly aggravated the systems of their bodies to shut down in just a few hours prior to being injected. Through further tests the patients started manifesting odd behaviors and were unresponsive. The facility shut itself down completely after the anti-virus uproar. Millions of people had protested against the lab facility closing itself off, to which the military had responded by intruding the facility itself, only to be met by unexpected circumstances…_

 

* * *

Lucien woke up, panting as if he had ran a mile. He immediately felt pain shoot through his head, almost like a migraine. He waited for the pain to subside before getting up from where he was laying down only to feel a throbbing pain make it’s way towards his back. It was the kind of pain you get from your body being on idle position for a couple of hours without moving so much as a muscle.

 

Apparently, all of his limbs seemed as if they were paralyzed and were stuck to the bed or whatever kind of cushion he was lying on. He tried scanning the room he was in despite how blurry his eyesight was right now. The room was unfortunately dark with a glow of light seeping itself through from one of the windows. He groaned in pain as he tried pulling himself up.

 

Despite how heavy his body felt, he managed to sit up right on the bed, no matter how uncomfortable his body felt as of the moment. He looked down at his hands and tried moving them, as well as his toes. It was tricky to get his toes to wiggle but after a few moments, they managed to cooperate in his grasp. He gently pushed his feet off the bed and onto the cold cemented floor.

It took a few moments to get used to the cold feeling beneath his feet but once he felt comfortable, he gently pushed the rest of his body off the bed and tried taking a few steps forward. His hands rested upon the walls to help his balance as he walked around the room. He rubbed at his eyes to muster a clearer sight of the room he was in and to his surprise; he was at their basement.

 

He walked up to where the door was supposed to be, almost tripping on a few steps up before he could turn the knob and slowly push the door open. Outside was their dark living room where all the windows were somehow covered in drapes, letting not as much as a hint of sunlight in. And to the side were the flight of stairs where his and his dad’s room were. Lucien’s eyes widened, a sudden wave of realization hitting him.

 

“Dad?!” Lucien called out to the living room, taking shaky, long strides from their sofa before making his way towards their kitchen. No one.

 

“Dad?!” He called out the second time, climbing up the flight of stairs up to his father’s library, where the drapes were also drawn closed. He tried clicking one of his father’s Victorian-themed lamps open, yet to no avail. Clearly, the power was out.

Walking back out the hallway, he took a few strides up to his room, opening the door. Luckily nothing relatively changed or seemed off, the curtains of his windows have always been drawn closed, restricting any sunlight from coming in.

 

Lucien was beyond confused and slowly panicking at this point. He walked out of the room, knees giving up on him as he felt his own heart beat faster and faster out of fear. He hugged his knees to himself, trying to calm his nerves down and breathe in slowly. His hands gripped on his hair tightly, deducing everything that has been happening with him so far.

 

First, he woke up in their dark basement. Why? He didn’t know for sure. Second, he felt as if he had been asleep for a long time and could barely remember what the fuck happened to him before waking up. Third, it hurt to fucking stand and walk, thus, probably prior to him sleeping for a long period of time. But how and why? And fourth, where the hell was his dad? Why was he left all alone here in their own house?

 

Lucien felt another throbbing pain shoot through his head. He tried ignoring it, but the throbbing in his head only got worse. He needed to figure out what the fuck was going on around here. He gently pushed himself up off the ground, despite the continuous throbbing occurring in his head. He figured he needed a change of clothes first because who knew how long time had passed before he woke up.

 

Lucien walked back to his room and quickly shuffled through his wardrobe, looking for anything remotely comfortable. He settled with a simple black tee, dark pants and a hoodie. Once he finished tying his shoes, he made his way down to the living room, walking up the door and opening it slowly. He was greeted by the sunlight immediately, slightly blinding him. He took one step forward, closing the door behind him.

His hand covered the sunlight that threatened to blind him permanently while slowly walking down the set of steps just below their porch. It was quiet around the neighborhood to say the least, maybe too quiet. Lucien felt the whole ghost-town vibe around the place as he walked around. He tried calling out for his dad a few times, but resulted to his own voice just echoing back. There was nobody else in the cul-d-sac area but him, which did nothing but aggravate his fear.

 

As he walked around, he noticed a few changes around the area that came awfully disturbing to Lucien. The area looked completely trashed, a whole lot of leaves and other trash were scattered across the street and the sidewalks. The grass that was usually taken care of by each family had grown almost all over the place.

 

Now Lucien definitely knew, without a doubt that he had been asleep for god knows how long for the whole area to look like how it did now. Suddenly, a loud explosive sound erupted itself from afar, repeating a bunch of times.

 

“That sounded like gunshots!” Lucien immediately ran towards the source of where the sound was. A few more gunshots erupted as he ran closer and closer. Finally the gunshots stopped once he reached the Coffee Spoon, or well, what used to be the Coffee Spoon.

 

“Hello?!” Lucien yelled out, walking around the relatively empty area. All the shops and other restaurants that used to look inviting and lively back then were permanently closed down. Other than that, the sidewalks and the street he walked on were completely wrecked with all kinds of trash and he could smell an unpleasant scent lingering from the whole area, as if something was rotting or decomposing. To put it rather simply, the whole area just looked eerie and… wrong.

 

Just then, he heard shuffling of feet from behind him. Lucien turned around to see a man with his back turned against Lucien, shakily limping. Lucien almost felt a sense of relief flush down his nerves. “Um, hey, excuse me!” Lucien took long strides towards the limping man, who continued walking slowly and farther from Lucien. He didn’t seem to hear him. “Hello? Excuse me…sir?” Once he reached the man, he planted a hand on his shoulder, turning him around to face Lucien.

 

Lucien audibly gasped, eyes widening in horror.

 

The man looked beyond horrendous; eyes drooping down to his sunken cheeks, looking as if his eyes could pop out of their sockets any second. Not to mention that his lower jaw was detached from the rest of his mouth and hanging loosely on his face. You could clearly see the mixture of dried blood from his jaw, looking like he had been like that for probably a long period of time. Lucien could smell the horrible, rotting stench from earlier, only then was it entirely present.

 

The man, (well, if you could even call it that) groaned weakly, barely uttering a word audibly. It tried to reach for Lucien, but he quickly backed away from the thing’s hands. It became even more persistent to reach out for him, groaning a lot louder than before, but luckily too slow and limping to reach Lucien. Yet the more he backed away farther, the louder and the more continuous the groans from the thing became, almost echoing through the entire area, as if it was trying to call for help.

 

Lucien stood in the middle of the street where he remained a safe distance away from the thing. He gripped at his chest, trying to calm his nerves but at this point, he was already swimming in fear. Just before he could take another step, he heard another sound of shuffling feet from a corner just across where he was. The shuffling seemed a bit more aggressive and faster than the other one. A figure popped out from the dark ends of the corner, hunching it’s back; blood decorated on its face, with a permanent fiendish expression settled upon its features. Its blood-shot eyes settled onto Lucien and it sneered angrily.

 

Lucien was frozen on spot, afraid that if he did move, the infernal thing would come bolting at him. Unfortunately, the thing did come running at him and Lucien made a bolt for it, adrenaline rush flushing towards his entire system, inwardly telling him to fucking run. The thing ran fast, almost catching up to him but not before Lucien ran towards another street, making a swift turn onto one of the dark corners. His breathing came in pants, trying to conceal his coughs. Not to mention that his heart was beating erratically now. He bit his lower lip, sweat forming against his forehead.

 

“Fucking shit… What the fuck was that?!” He inwardly cursed, closed his eyes and hugged his knees tight. He tried to breathe in slowly, calming his erratic heartbeat. Luckily he was hiding just behind large garbage storage. It took a few minutes for him to tone his heartbeat down but when he did, he had an easier time to breathe. He didn’t even know how long he had been sitting behind the garbage storage. Even so, he was too afraid to look beyond it too see if the thing was right around the corner or not.

 

Suddenly, there was a string of gunshots being fired from just beyond the wall of the corner he was in. Lucien widened his eyes, and immediately started calling out.

 

“Hey! Hey! Please come get me! I’m right here!!” He yelled out to the other side. The gunshots immediately stopped, and Lucien called out more.

 

“Please! I’m right here! Come get me!”

 

But then, a sharp sneer was heard from around the corner. Lucien immediately clamped his mouth shut. He looked off to the side where the street was and immediately saw the thing slowly lingering in front of the corner Lucien was in. He could smell the foul stench, wanting to gag out of disgust. It was just standing at the end of the corner, silently sneering before taking a few steps forward, missing Lucien from across.

He needed to head out of that corner quick before it came back. He waited for another minute, keeping a close eye to the side. After a minute had passed, he slowly stood up, taking one step at a time, training his gaze forward. _One.._ Lucien could feel his heart beat faster. _Two.._ He leaned to the side of the wall for support, keeping his steps as silent as possible. _Three… Four… Five…_

On the sixth step, he was already a foot away from the sidewalk. Once he gripped on to the edge of corner, the thing suddenly appeared out of nowhere to the side, sneering. They both locked eyes on each other and it sneered aggressively, jumping on Lucien.

 

“Fuck!” Lucien yelled as it gripped on him tight. Both of them landed on the ground, Lucien tried prying its rugged hands off of him but the thing was immensely more aggressive. It tried to claw Lucien’s neck off and Lucien tried kicking and kneeing it but the thing didn’t even flinch away. Lucien growled, punching it on its face hard but it gripped tight on Lucien’s fist, drawing its teeth out, almost biting him.

 

Almost.

 

Suddenly, the thing was pulled back by its hair and shot from the side of the head. Blood was spilled everywhere. The thing came crashing on the ground, unmoving.

 

“What the fuck…” Lucien breathed in and out. Somehow time had eventually stopped and he could feel his heart beat echo from his own ears. He felt as if he was going to pass out any second now. A figure was standing in front of him; looking at him with intense eyes. When Lucien looked up at the figure, he thought that the guy couldn’t possibly be an adult, given by his stature. There was a mask covering half of his face, and an orange jacket was tied on his waist. Now that he thought about it, the jacket did seem familiar.

 

“Lucien?!” The figure spoke, calling out his own name. Lucien furrowed his brows in confusion until the guy revealed half of his face and Lucien felt his heart drop in utter shock. After going through all kinds of hell today, he couldn’t even muster the feeling of seeing someone damn familiar.

 

“Ernest?!” Lucien called out before feeling all of his senses fade to black.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucien’s mind was piling up with so many questions right now. All this time, he thought he was the only one left in the whole district. Nevertheless, he felt grateful to know he wasn’t totally stuck here by himself, now with Ernest around. But why? Was Ernest left here all alone too? Where are the others? And why the hell is Ernest carrying a pistol around? When and where did he even learn how to shoot? Is he planning to shoot Lucien too?

Chapter 2

 

_A few months ago, the anti-virus trials had caused a national uproar amongst citizens by closing down all operations regarding the distribution of the said anti-virus content. The military suspected suspicious activity within the lab tests, so in order to counter this matter, they infiltrated the inner works of these facilities. Within their operation, they’ve discovered gallons and gallons of serum amount that were failed to be distributed, and something else…_

_The military refused to discuss all the other details within the entire operation and revealed their mission to be classified. The gallons of serum discovered were not to be distributed in any way and remained under inspection._

_“Lucien…”_

_“Lucien, my darling…”_

_“It will all be alright soon..”_

_“Lucien.”_

_“Lucien!”_

“Lucien! Hey!”

 

Lucien’s eyes fluttered open with Ernest’s constant yelling and shaking, and suddenly, he remembered where he was.

 

“What happened?” Lucien groaned, slowly sitting up from the ground.

 

“You passed out, duh.” Ernest scoffed, as if it was the most obvious answer to Lucien’s question.

 

Lucien glared up at him. It was relieving to hear Ernest’s usual banter against him but Lucien was having none of it as of the moment. “I know, asshole.” He slowly picked himself up, brushing dirt off his clothes.

 

“Ya’ asked.” Ernest shrugged, rose up from where he was sitting.

 

Lucien’s mind was piling up with so many questions right now. All this time, he thought he was the only one left in the whole district. Nevertheless, he felt grateful to know he wasn’t totally stuck here by himself, now with Ernest around. But why? Was Ernest left here all alone too? Where are the others? And why the hell is Ernest carrying a pistol around? When and where did he even learn how to shoot? Is he planning to shoot Lucien too?

 

Before Lucien could overthink even more, Ernest cleared his throat, knocking Lucien off of his thoughts.

“Dude, you literally look like you’ve seen a ghost. Like.. You’re really hella pale, right now.” Ernest squinted his eyes up at him, leaning in to take a closer look at Lucien.

Lucien furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

 

“Actually now that I think about it, you’ve always been pretty pale so..” Lucien shoved Ernest’s face away in annoyance from the remark.

 

“You lil’ shit.” He retorted.

 

“Hey! I just saved you from that thing and this is how you repay me?!” Ernest pointed his gun at the dead corpse of the “thing”. Lucien was still deeply disturbed from just by looking at the corpse, and the entire situation nonetheless.

 

“Can you stop pointing that thing everywhere?” Lucien was indicating at the gun. He couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling of seeing Ernest killing something… or someone minutes ago.

 

“What thing? This thing?” Ernest waved his gun around.

“Well this happens to be pretty useful for self-defense over “these” things, in case you didn’t know.” He pointed back to the corpse.

 

Lucien sighed in defeat, lowering his shoulders. “Actually, I didn’t know.”

 

Ernest stood silent for a few seconds.

 

“Wait, seriously?”

 

“Why the hell would I lie?” Lucien retorted.

 

“I mean, it basically chased you down a few minutes ago AND literally tried to EAT you, how could you possibly not know?”

 

Lucien grunted, clearly getting frustrated with their little banter.

 

“Look, I didn’t know it was trying to eat me until it actually jumped on me and tried to bite my arm off, alright?” Lucien didn’t mean to yell that last bit out but his frustrations got the best out of him.

 

Ernest raised his arms in defeat.

 

“Okay, geez, chill. There’s no need to throw a bitch fit, seriously.” He grumbled.

 

“How the fuck are you even okay with this? You literally just KILLED somebody or… something. And would you mind explaining what the fuck that “thing” was just now?” Lucien pointed at the dead corpse, crossing his arms and glaring at Ernest.

 

Ernest looked at Lucien with an expression as if to say, “are you kidding me right now”.

 

“Listen, I don’t know if you got your head all fucked up from that fall a lil’ while earlier. But that “thing” you see lying dead-ass on the ground right now is what people usually see in movies. Zombie movies, to be exact. And what do you call those monsters that chase you around with the intention of eating you whole? Zombies! Yeah, Lucien, it’s a fucking zombie!” Ernest kicked at the corpse’s limp legs.

 

“See? Now it’s dead. It can’t hurt us now.”

 

Lucien cringed at how Ernest kicked at the “zombie”, with its brains basically popping out of its head from the headshot a while ago.

 

“I get it, Ernest. It’s a fucking zombie.” Lucien uttered in exasperation when Ernest wouldn’t stop kicking it.

 

“Good, well, since all the clarification shit is done…” Ernest reached around for the back of his belt, handing another gun to Lucien. “You’re gonna need this.”

 

Lucien slightly flinched, taking a step back.

“I’m not taking that.” He stated.

 

“You’re gonna have to anyway. You hardly got anything to use as a weapon other than your feet to run away.” Ernest pushed the gun onto Lucien’s chest.

 

Lucien wanted to retort something back at Ernest but ignored it for the sake of avoiding another argument with the guy. He begrudgingly took the gun.

 

“Where’d you even get your hands on these?” Lucien asked, examining the gun as he held it.

 

Ernest stood silent, staring into space for a couple of seconds before saying something.

“None of your business.” He uttered, avoiding Lucien’s gaze.

 

Lucien wanted to press on the issue but decided not to. He unloaded the gun first before hiding it within the hem of his waistline.

“So where the hell do we go now?”

 

Before anyone else could speak, their stomachs growled in response instead.

 

“Uh. The mall, I guess. Supermarket’s s trashed, you could barely find anything in there.” Ernest responded, unloading his gun and hiding it behind him before walking out of the corner.

 

Lucien dreaded the fact that Ernest said they were going to the mall almost so casually. Obviously the situation was a lot far worse than that to be considered anything but a walk in the park. He didn’t know for sure what Ernest had to deal with before they even met again, under unfortunate circumstances. For now, he refused to pressure any details from him.

 

Lucien followed closely behind Ernest, crossing his arms to himself. Both of them walked in silence, barely uttering a word to each other. It gave Lucien the chance to contemplate on the things that have been going on so far. He still had a whole lot of questions left unanswered. Ernest did help in clearing up the whole zombie ordeal, though. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, Ernest did have a point there. Lucien just had a hard time grasping the entire situation regardless. Those scenarios in movies just aren’t possible to happen in real life. Right? Well, obviously, Lucien was wrong. Clearly, he was still unsure of what the hell he was supposed to do if a zombie was ever close by. He wouldn’t know how to react and as much as possible, he downright refused to kill anything. Preferred not to, for the matter. He still had to get used to the whole condition they were in as of the moment. He really wished his dad were here with him.

 

“I think we’re almost there. We gotta keep a close eye though, just in case.” Ernest mentioned.

 

Lucien didn’t respond, remaining quiet and close by. They continued walking for another couple of minutes before reaching the parking lot… where a few zombies were lingering about.

 

Ernest and Lucien hid behind a dusty, abandoned car. Ernest pulled his pistol out of his back, urging Lucien to do the same. Lucien rolled his eyes but followed otherwise.

 

“Okay, basically there are like 3 of them. One’s on our side, the other two are at the other end. With the way they’re limping, they all gotta be slowpokes. So,..”

 

“Wait, what? Slowpokes? Really?” Lucien frowned.

 

It was Ernest’s turn to roll his eyes.

“Yeah, cus they move really fucking slow. And all they fucking do is groan.”

 

Lucien recalled the first zombie he encountered. He was practically scorned from reminiscing on that moment. But somehow, Lucien still wasn’t buying it. “Yeah, I can fucking see that. But why the fuck are they called “slowpokes” in the first place?”

 

“I made that fucking name up, ok? Now lucky for us, they’re the easiest ones to kill, which is why I dubbed them “slowpokes” in the first place. But we could even be luckier if there wasn’t a “sneerer” near by.” Ernest explained.

 

Lucien raised an eyebrow at him.

Ernest sighed in defeat before explaining.

 

“A “sneerer” can actually fucking chase after you and eat you faster. Like the one that jumped on you earlier.” He smirked.

 

Lucien got that and didn’t need the clarification.

“It’s cus’ they sneer, right?”

 

Ernest scoffed, “Yeah, whatever. Like you could come up with a better name anyway.”

 

Lucien was almost tempted to use the gun on Ernest, gripping it a little tighter in his hand. Honestly, he wanted to pull a joke out of the entire situation but then it hardly deemed as appropriate for the time and place.

 

“Just come up with a plan already.”

 

“That IS what I’m trying to do, jerk. Anyway, as long as those fuckers don’t see us, we can pull the trigger off of their heads. But if they do, they might call their cousins out to chase us for them and feast on us.”

 

Lucien was pretty impressed by Ernest’s background knowledge with all of this. Yet, still felt uncomfortable about the thought of shooting something’s head off. He might have to sit this one out.

 

“I say we kill this one on our side and leave the other two there for now. We just gotta make sure we aren’t caught.” Ernest stood up from his spot, loading his gun before turning the safety off. He ducked his head on the hood of the car while keeping a close eye on the one they had to kill.

 

“Okay, ready?” Ernest looked down at Lucien, who hasn’t even loaded his gun yet.

Lucien looked at Ernest with an empty stare.

 

Ernest groaned in frustration, “Whatever, I’ll do it myself. Just follow my lead.” He ducked his head, trying to keep a low profile as he slowly sneaked his way forward. Lucien didn’t do much of a low profile but followed Ernest silently.

 

Once Ernest was right behind the limping figure, he aimed the gun behind its head, slowly pulling the trigger and shooting it. The body fell to the side, brains spilling to the ground.

 

“Run!” Ernest mouthed the word back at Lucien and both of them immediately bolted forward towards one of the doors before the other two zombies could see them. They closed the door and locked it once they got in, panting.

 

“Okay.. Now that we got that shit down. Food.” Ernest breathed out, climbing up the stairs. Lucien coughed before following closely behind.

They climbed up the stairs for 2 minutes before reaching the mall area. They hid behind one of the escalators to search around for zombies. So far, they didn’t see any.

 

“Food court’s only above this level, we should be good.” Lucien spoke.

 

They slowly climbed up the broken escalator, ducking their heads low to scan the sides for zombies. Luckily, there were none.

 

“Sweet.” Ernest grinned, climbing the rest of the way up and making his way towards what used to be the pizza food stall.

 

Lucien shook his head, following Ernest. “We should get actual food. Not this piece of garbage.”

 

Ernest hoarded as much pizza rolls and boxes as much as he could with his two hands. “Well we hardly got any other choice than this, princess.”

 

Lucien sighed in defeat. He was really craving for a veggie burger right now. He tried scanning the area for anything else that he could find and possibly eat for later. His stomach growled again in hunger. He stopped by an empty smoothie stall and tried to figure out his options.

 

“They might still have some edible fruits in there.” He thought.

 

While he let Ernest hoard his own food off to the side, Lucien walked into the smoothie store. One of his hands travelled to the back of his hands, gripping at the gun in order to keep his nerves down. He slowly and gently approached the back where the store kept its ingredients and stock of fruits. Fortunately, there was nobody else there.

 

Lucien breathed a sigh, letting go of the gun behind him. He scanned the shelves for anything edible and not past their expiration date. So far, he’s seen almost every kind of fruit gone bad in the broken fridge. And everything else was entirely expired, especially the milk. He shut the fridge in exasperation, gripping his stomach.

 

He supposed there was still food back in his house. Maybe he could whip something up with what’s left of their ingredients. Suddenly he remembered his own dad, who used to cook a whole lot of his meals for him. It was what bonded both of them so close. He remembered how both of them would spend time talking, mostly Damien, about anything in particular while eating their home-cooked meals. Without Damien, Lucien would’ve never learned how to cook or even fend for himself. He’d give anything to take all of that back again.

Suddenly Lucien felt as if he wasn’t alone in the room anymore. He felt another presence lingering from behind his back.

 

“You find anything?” Ernest came trotting into the room with already a bag full of pizza boxes.

 

Lucien turned to look at Ernest with an incredulous look in his face.

 

Ernest frowned at Lucien. “What?”

 

Lucien shook his head as to shake away his own fear.

 

“Nothing. I found nothing.” He uttered.

 

Ernest could sense a hint of hostility in Lucien’s tone but decided to shrug it off.

 

“Well, it’s almost getting dark out. I guess we have about an hour to head back to the cul-de-sac. We gotta get moving.” Ernest adjusted the bag onto his shoulders.

 

“I mean, it’s technically still pretty sunny outside, I think we could still use the time to find more stuff.” Lucien retorted.

 

Ernest shook his head. “Dude, trust me. You don’t wanna be walking around once it gets dark.” With that said, he exited the room.

 

Lucien frowned at Ernest’s statement, walking out of the room to catch up to the other.

 

“Wait what do you mean once it gets dark? What other fucking thing could be worse than what’s happening right now?” Lucien asked, gripping on Ernest’s shoulder to face him but Ernest flinched away from Lucien’s grasp.

 

“Listen man, if you wanna go out and take a stroll in the night, then be my guest! But for me? I’d rather not fucking wind up dead in the streets trying to get home!” Ernest was heavily breathing, eyes flaring up like they were about to explode.

 

Lucien could sense the anger radiating off of Ernest. Yet, he could sense something else coming from Ernest’s breathing, almost as if he was hyperventilating. Was it fear?

 

Lucien planted both of his hands on top of the other’s shoulders, gently massaging them.

 

“Calm down. It’s fine, we’re gonna go home now. Alright?” Lucien urged Ernest to look at him.

 

He didn’t know what got Ernest all worked up about walking in the night, but he wasn’t about to push him around for details, seeing as how he was reacting right now.

It took a while for Ernest’s breathing to even out but after a minute or two, he was able to look up at Lucien and nod in agreement.

 

“Let’s go.”

 

It took them 5 minutes to climb back down and head towards the parking lot. The other two zombies were nowhere to be found which gave them the advantage to walk freely. They headed to the direction back to the cul-de-sac. Once they passed by the abandoned Coffee Spoon, they encountered a few “slowpokes”, as Ernest liked to call it but had it’s back turned against them at the end of a corner.

They saw a few more around the end of another street; luckily they were swift enough to escape from their sight. After a few more minutes, they safely made it back to the cul-de-sac area.

 

“Which house?” Lucien asked.

“Yours. It’s bigger.” Ernest simply retorted.

 

They both walk up the stairs to Lucien’s porch. He opened the door to his house, letting Ernest in. As soon as they had locked the door, they were surrounded by complete utter darkness.

 

“Geez, your house used to look a LOT livelier than this. Don’t you have any flashlights or some shit?” Ernest dropped his bag full of pizzas on the floor.

“Already on it.” Lucien made his way to their basement with Ernest tailing behind him.

 

Once they headed in, Lucien immediately tried looking for a flashlight. His father would usually buy a few of them for emergency purposes only.

 

“What are we looking for exactly?” Ernest trailed his finger on one of the tables, slightly cringing at how dusty it was.

 

“Flashlights, obviously. But that’s probably not gonna help us much.” Lucien tried looking through of one of their cabinets but only found a bunch of old newspapers, clothes, more books and old photo albums.

 

“I know my dad used to keep oil lamps around here. We haven’t used them for a while.” He shut the cabinet closed.

 

“Why would you guys keep oil lamps in the first place?” Ernest frowned, looking up at Lucien.

 

Lucien gave Ernest an empty look, raising an eyebrow at him.

 

“Right.” Ernest nodded in understanding.

Lucien walked over to one of the tables, bending down to check other boxes.

 

“Aren’t the lights you use in you living room and everything considered oil lamps?”

 

Lucien sighed, glaring at Ernest from below the table.

 

“They’re Victorian-themed. It’s not like we live under the 18th century, using oil lamps all day. Most of our main lights are run by electricity.” Lucien spotted a grand-ish looking box and tried opening it. Inside were Victorian-era knives, completely untouched and polished.

 

“Woah. Those look pretty cool. You should use them.” Ernest stooped low beside Lucien.

 

Lucien scoffed, closing the box and lightly shoving it to the side.

 

“I’d rather not get them dirty.”

 

Ernest shrugged, looking through other boxes.

 

“Suit yourself man.”

 

After a few minutes of their search, they managed to find nothing. It was hard to look from how dark the entire room was. Not to mention it was getting too balmy around the place.

 

“Hey, look!” Ernest was holding a flashlight, flicking it open a few times.

 

“Where’d you find that?”

 

“It was here inside this box. There are a bunch of them. I don’t know if they all work though.”

 

“Toss me one.”

 

Ernest tossed one of the flashlights across the room towards Lucien.

 

Lucien caught it and flicked the light open. He scanned through different other boxes before finding a relatively larger box than the other ones. He softly smiled, carrying it onto the table.

 

“You find anything else?”

 

Ernest was looking at different books, blowing the dust out of them.

 

“Nope, saw a couple of cool books though. But I think we’re good with these.” Ernest gently shook the box of flashlights.

 

“Good, well, I managed to find the oil lamps too.” Lucien was holding one of them from the entire box.

 

“Sweet.” Ernest grinned.

 

It took a bit of time trying to figure how the lamps exactly worked. It was a bit of a challenge, considering he’s never tried using them before. Although they did have their own fireplace, Lucien preferred not to turn their own living room into a sauna, considering the power was out.

While Lucien tried working the lamps, Ernest was unpacking all of his pizza boxes from his bag.

 

He opened up a box of pizza, taking a piece and biting it.

 

“Any luck with that?” He bit another piece.

 

Lucien shook his head, refilling oil into the lamp, soaking the wick for a few minutes.

He did the same routine for three more lamps. Once they were ready, he lit them up with matches, toning down the fire for each lamp.

 

By then, Ernest had already finished an entire box of pizza, burping loudly once he swallowed the last piece.

 

Lucien placed most of the lamps in the living room and two more in the kitchen. He sat down on the opposite sofa across where Ernest was sitting on. His stomach had been growling for some time now yet he couldn’t bring himself to eat anything at the moment. He silently sat on the sofa, hugging his knees to himself as he watched the fire from the lamp in front of him. Ernest lay down on the opposite sofa, looking up at the ceiling. None uttered a word at each other, embracing the silence that manifested within the room.

 

Lucien grew tired of today’s events. His orbs followed the flame’s slow movements from the lamp. He didn’t want to think about anything but the fire dancing in front of him. It solely reminded him of warmth, and he craved it. The warmth he could’ve had back when things were still how they were before. He felt cold, afraid and alone. And when he looked up at Ernest, he saw the look of hopelessness he never thought he’d see in the boy’s face.

 

Ernest was stubborn by nature. Lucien knew what could tick him off and knew how to do it in a matter of seconds. He was difficult, sure, but he did showcase sympathy at times. Lucien held similar traits in fact. That’s how they tolerated each other in the first place. Ernest was never the type to open up about his feelings. But somehow the way his expression contorted from it’s tough exterior to a softer one, Lucien just knew Ernest was gong through the same notions as he did.

“Do you think they’ll ever come back?” Ernest muttered, not taking his eyes off the ceiling.

 

Lucien hugged his knees tighter, staring at the ground.

 

“Who’s “they”?” He uttered.

 

“Everyone.”

 

Lucien sighed, lying down on his side.

 

“It’s too early to think about stuff like that right now. Why would you even ask?”

 

Ernest turned to look at Lucien, a sudden look of determination plastered on his face.

 

“I mean… cus’ you came back.”

 

“I never left in the first place, Ernest.”

 

Lucien crossed his arms in front of him, looking up at the ceiling. They both remained silent for quite a while before Ernest broke the ice.

 

“Then… where the hell were you?”

 

Lucien had already closed his eyes, uttering not much of a reply to Ernest’s question.

He thought Ernest would’ve taken the hint and immediately stopped talking then and there but he was clearly mistaken as Ernest continued.

 

“Dude, I gotta admit, for a while… I thought you were dead. Everyone was just…gone. I was literally the only one left here. I started feeling as if I was good as dead by now. But after today… I guess it felt lesser than that.” Ernest uttered softly.

 

After a few moments, Lucien could hear Ernest lightly snore from the other side.

 

Lucien’s eyes fluttered open, sighing in defeat.

 

“As good as dead, huh?" 

 

 

* * *

 


	3. "Shadier than Usual"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucien tried reassuring himself that nothing wrong was going to happen. Besides, Ernest’s checked the place out a couple of times before. So, nothing was gonna completely fuck up their visit, right?

Chapter 3

 

The darkness surrounding him was slowly closing in on where he was standing. Lucien had caught a glimpse of his father right before he vanished into thin air. He tried calling out in the dark, only to be met with no response. He waited until the pitch-black atmosphere slowly dispersed, pulling him into the dark once and for all…

 

He suddenly felt as if his senses were coming back to him. The air around him felt cold, as if he was floating. He could hear his heart beat loudly. Panic surged through his nerves as he tried to reach for something to hold onto. His hands gripped to the sides of something sturdy yet soft. Finally gathering enough courage to open his eyes, his heart had dropped immediately from what he had witnessed. He was back at their basement. He looked to the side to where Ernest should’ve been only to find no one beside him. The fact that he was wearing the clothes he wore from the last time he woke up in the basement, deeply disturbed him even more.

 

“Was all of that just a fucking dream?” Fear and panic were slowly surging though his system.

 

Luckily, his body didn’t feel as sore as the last time he woke up here, giving him the mobility to immediately get up from the bed and walk towards the door. Yet before he could take another step, he felt a lingering presence creeping up behind him. Even with his back turned against it, he could hear it groan from the other end of the room. He knew exactly what kind of monster would make such disturbing sounds but he couldn’t bring himself to turn around and face it. The groaning continued and was getting louder and louder by the second. Lucien tried opening the door only to find it completely locked. He was banging at the door, desperately calling for help from the other side until the groaning had stopped. He closed his eyes, gripping at the doorknob tightly. He silently prayed that it was all a dream and that he’d wake up right away. His thoughts were interrupted by a sneer.

 

“Shit!” Lucien crumbled to the floor, covering his face. He could feel hot tears pouring down his cheeks. “Please just fucking go away…” He croaked. Suddenly the door had creaked open, a pair of hands pulling Lucien away from the room before the figure behind could catch up and snatch him away.

 

Lucien suddenly felt as if he were drifting towards a light.

 

“Lucien!”

 

“Lucien!”

 

“Dude! Wake up!” A voice echoed.

 

Lucien fluttered his eyes open to see Ernest, whose hands had a firm grip on his shoulders. Apparently now, he was back at the living room and Ernest was present, currently looking down at him with a confused expression. His mind couldn’t process anything at the moment, not after the nightmare he just had. He lay frozen on the couch, barely moving a muscle; heart beating in an erratic pace.

 

Ernest sat at the end of the couch, training a confused look on Lucien.

 

“You were shaking and screaming in your sleep. It woke me up.”

 

Lucien remained silent, barely looking up at Ernest.

 

Ernest sighed, standing up and leaving Lucien to his thoughts by himself.

 

It took a few minutes before Lucien calmed down, sitting up from the couch. He felt completely lost and felt as if he was slowly losing a grip of reality as each moment passes by. His hunger had long gone past him. He hugged his knees to himself, burying his head low.

 

Ernest came back after a minute, holding a plate of pizza. He sat beside Lucien’s hunched up figure, tapping the other’s foot for him to look up.

 

“Eat.” Ernest muttered, offering the plate forward.

 

Lucien stared blankly at Ernest and the plate.

 

“I tried scavenging your cabinets for food but sadly, your shit’s empty. So eat.”

 

Lucien buried his head on his knees again, ignoring Ernest.

 

“What? Too greasy for you?” Ernest scoffed, shoving the plate down on the table in front of him.

 

Lucien kept quiet, gripping at his knees.

 

“Whatever, man.” Ernest got up from the couch, walking towards the side where his belt and gun were placed on top of a table. He buckled the belt on his waist, securing his pistol behind him.

 

Lucien looked up to see Ernest grabbing an empty bag and marching up to the door.

 

“Where the hell are you going?” Lucien asked.

 

Ernest stopped and turned around.

 

“Gonna fucking scavenge, what does it look like?”

 

Lucien frowned, crossing his arms.

 

“You have tons of other boxes of pizza here, why the hell would you need to go out there again?”

 

“Why the hell do you care?!” Ernest snapped, glaring up at Lucien.

 

Lucien stood silent, throwing a glare right back at Ernest, who looked like he was a second away from losing it.

 

“Calm down-“

 

“You can’t tell me what to fucking do!” Ernest interjected.

 

“Dude, chill the fuck out. Wait for me, I’m coming with you.” Lucien got up from the couch, making his way towards his shoes before putting them on.

 

Ernest was left standing before the door, trying to soothe away his temper.

 

Lucien grabbed the gun Ernest gave him and walked towards the door, opening it for both of them. No one said a word to each other once they were out in the streets. Ernest walked a little further away from Lucien and Lucien begrudgingly trailed behind him quietly. He didn’t know what set Ernest’s temper high so early in the morning, but he wasn’t about to test it out again. Speaking of time, he barely even knew what time of day it was anymore. Judging from the scorching heat of the sunlight, he’d guessed it was just before afternoon. He could practically feel sweat forming under his armpits and they haven’t even been out for more than 15 minutes. Lucien suddenly craved for a long, cold shower.

 

Ernest did nothing but continuously walk, as if he knew where he was going. He didn’t even turn to look back at Lucien to see if he was still keeping up. It ticked Lucien off a bit to see Ernest act really weird; he couldn’t help but speak up.

 

“Okay, seriously, where the hell are we going?” Lucien glared at the back of Ernest’s head.

 

Ernest stopped midway on the street, right in front of an abandoned supermarket.

Lucien stopped walking as soon as he saw the place Ernest was looking at.

 

“The supermarket? You said you couldn’t find shit here.”

 

“Yeah? Well you couldn’t find shit to eat back at the mall either, so I figured this was the place to look. Plus, we need to look for more stuff, just in case.” Ernest retorted, grabbing his gun from behind him.

 

Lucien couldn’t help but appreciate Ernest’s underlying concern over him; no matter how restrained his actions were by his pride. Yet the thought of eating is currently not listed into Lucien’s priorities right now. Hell, he found his thoughts revolving around different things as of the moment, but eating was most likely not one of them.

 

Lucien followed Ernest right in front of the market’s entrance. Luckily, they seemed to be the only ones wandering around the area. The place was bare of any sign of life around, and it looked relatively trashed from the inside. Somehow, Lucien had a bad feeling about going in there. Ernest looked determined as ever, taking his gun out from behind. Lucien tried reassuring himself that nothing wrong was going to happen. Besides, Ernest’s checked the place out a couple of times before. So, nothing was gonna completely fuck up their visit, right?

 

Lucien knew he thought too soon once Ernest tried budging and shaking the door open and a sneerer came out of nowhere from the side, charging towards the door.

 

“Shit! Close it!” Lucien yelled as soon as it was in front of them. They swiftly pulled the door closed before it could come after their necks. The sneerer banged and scratched at the glass door, glaring right through them from the inside. It’s clothes were severely torn apart, almost as if it was mauled by an animal and one of it’s eyes was missing.

Ernest shakily chuckled, eyes blown wide from shock.

 

“Idiot can’t open a fucking door… ” He chuckled, flipping his middle finger at the it.

 

“Fuck you! You thought you could fucking catch us just like that?! You thought wrong bitch! Look at you, you can’t even open a fucking door!” Ernest snapped.

 

Lucien pulled at Ernest harshly.

 

“Stop fucking screeching! Are you crazy?! You might just call every fucking one of them from screaming like that!” Lucien breathed harshly.

 

“Pft. Whatever dude. Look at it. It can’t possibly do anything else-“

 

Just then they heard a glass break, one of the sneerer’s rugged hands had broken through the glass door from continuously pounding at it.

 

Lucien raised an eyebrow at Ernest while the other just grunted in annoyance.

 

“Hold its hands still, I’ll aim for the head.”

 

“As if I’m doing that.” Lucien crossed his arms.

“Well, I can’t shoot him dead if he keeps squirming around like that!”

 

“Boo hoo.”

 

“Fine, you shoot it. I’ll hold it still.”

 

“I am neither killing it or holding its hands, Ernest.”

“Jeez, its not like you’re gonna form a bond with it or some shit! Just hold its hands still!”

 

Lucien could feel a vein pop from his temples. He glared down at Ernest, who still seemed to be expecting him to hold that thing’s hands.

 

“Go on~ He’s waiting.” He smirked.

 

That little shit.

 

Lucien sighed in defeat, hesitant to move from where he stood before slowly coming forward with Ernest following from behind.

The thing kept flailing its arms everywhere as it tried reaching for them. Not to mention it literally looked like shit. Normally Lucien would’ve laughed at the whole scene off on an average day. But seeing the situation as how it was right now, he couldn’t even muster a smile while looking at it.

 

“Grab its hands already.” Ernest grumbled.

 

Lucien rolled his eyes before trying to catch the thing’s arms within his grasp. He struggled for a few seconds with the thing literally just squirming like all over the place. Once he grasped on both it’s hands and mustered all the courage not to gag from how slimy and rugged it’s hands felt, Ernest reached from inside the broken glass and aimed the gun on top of it’s head before shooting. Luckily the glass shielded the blood from splattering at them.

 

The entire fiasco was beyond Lucien, not to mention he was still clearly disturbed by every time Ernest had to kill off one of those things by shooting it through its head. Honestly, he couldn’t even fathom how the idiot did it without getting the least bit disturbed.

 

Once they pushed the corpse off to the side and walked into the area, Ernest immediately bolted towards one of the aisles in the corner while Lucien looked for anything that might prove useful in the near future. While he knew that their sole purpose for being here in the market was to search for more food, specifically for himself, he couldn’t exactly bring himself any closer towards the food aisles. He picked up a couple of batteries, extra oil, some first aid kit necessities and a few more other stuff.

Lucien could smell a hint of foul, rotting odor lingering from the meat section. He scrunched up his nose in disgust and covered his sense of scent with one of his hands. He moved away as far as possible from the meat section, walking up to the other end of the market, where Ernest was bending down, looking over some snacks.

 

“Did you find anything?” Lucien muttered.

 

Ernest simply stared up at Lucien.

 

“What?” Lucien frowned at the way Ernest looked at him.

 

“All the sour patch kids are gone.” Ernest tossed an empty box just below Lucien’s feet.

 

“Is… that a problem?” Lucien raised an eyebrow.

 

“Not only that… But all the milk duds, skittles, m&ms, all the good shit are gone!” Ernest threw a bunch of empty boxes in different directions.

 

Lucien dodged one of the boxes that almost hit his shoulder. He could already feel his patience wearing out for the third time today.

 

“Would you fucking relax? Seriously, what the hell is up with you and all that junk candy?”

 

“You don’t understand, they’re legit gone… The boxes are all empty!” Ernest’s tone was shaky.

 

“No shit, cus’ you ate all of them.”

 

“No way. I remember leaving at least a couple more for every box!”

 

“How considerate of you.”

 

Ernest grunted, standing up from the ground.

 

“Haha, very funny. Look, I know it sounds crazy, but I swear, I never took more than 3 packets for each box.”

 

“Well, it is kinda funny how you thought of leaving a few when you could’ve pretty much taken them for yourself.” Lucien chuckled.

 

Ernest stayed silent, kicking at one of the empty boxes.

 

“This is all too shady.”

 

“Again, no shit.”

 

Ernest bit at his lower lip in contemplation.

 

“The whole place looks a lot trashier too.”

 

It took a moment for Lucien to process what Ernest had said before speaking up.

 

“Wait, what do you mean by that?”

 

Ernest shoved his hands down his pockets.

 

“Well first of all, a few more of the aisles had been knocked down to the ground for some reason. Second, all the sweet shit I wanted to fucking hoard on are completely gone. Third…. Well, it’s actually not that far off from the second point, in which all the other food I used to hoard on are completely missing.”

 

Lucien’s expression contorted into confusion to what Ernest was explaining to him. No doubt he thought that the area looked real shady from the start yet he had no idea it was THAT shady for Ernest to start fretting over. He wanted to assume that Ernest was just stressing over unnecessary observations or he was just THAT forgetful. But at the same time, why would Ernest worry over these shady changes in the first place?

 

“Okay but what kinds of other food have you been hoarding in the first place?”

 

Ernest shrugged, looking around.

 

“Just a bunch of junk.”

 

Lucien’s eyes trailed behind Ernest, looking at a bunch of other food sections. His gaze settled on what used to be the baby food section. Which was now completely void of baby food.

 

“Was baby food counted on your list?” Lucien smirked.

 

Ernest frowned, looking behind him to see the empty section before glaring back at Lucien.

 

“Fuck you. And… yes.”

 

Lucien snickered.

 

“They were very easy to eat, okay?! Also, the fact that it’s completely empty is pretty shady. Cus’ again, I remember picking up only a few of that shit.”

 

“Again, I still don’t get why you didn’t just hoard it all in the first place.”

 

“I didn’t wanna eat a whole ton of baby food, Lucien!”

 

Lucien rolled his eyes, pushing Ernest out of the way as he examined the section further. As much as he hated to admit it, he found himself believing Ernest. If Ernest took only a few bottles of baby food, then who’d take the rest? From the corner, he could see a lone bottle of baby food hidden from beneath two shelves. He picked it up and examined it. It wasn’t past its expiry date.

 

“Dude.”

 

Lucien turned around to see Ernest holding something.

 

It was a stuffed animal; a capybara, to be specific.

 

“Dude… this.. seems really familiar. Didn’t one of Craig’s kids own one of these?”

 

Lucien took the stuffed toy from Ernest. He looked back and forth between the bottle of baby food and the stuffed toy. He looked up at Ernest again before looking at the empty baby food section.

 

“Where’d you find this?”

 

“The next aisle.”

 

“Which section?”

 

“Uh… the diapers and shit.”

 

Lucien’s eyebrows furrowed in contemplation. After a moment, his eyes had widened in realization, and judging from how Ernest’s expression contorted into shock, they both knew they were thinking the same thing.

 

“That means... the baby food… the diapers…” Ernest muttered.

 

Lucien nodded.

 

“And this stuffed capybara is definitely River’s. Which means that they definitely were here.”

 

“Yeah… But what about the sneerer?” Ernest turned to look at the corpse lying dead just by the entrance.

 

“I doubt it could’ve got to them. If it did, they would’ve left a few pieces of themselves, like the bag they used to carry all their junk… or maybe even their corpses.”

 

Ernest stared right back at Lucien with an expression filled with disbelief.

“That’s just fucking vile, dude.” He scoffed.

 

Lucien rolled his eyes, sighing.

 

“I was joking.”

He shoved the toy and bottle of baby food onto Ernest.

“Here. Pack everything else you need.”

 

“What the- Where the hell are you going?” Ernest frowned.

 

“I’m going around the back.” Lucien muttered, walking towards the meat section. Something about the area didn’t rub him too right. He could practically smell the lingering rotting scent from the meat area a few steps away. Lucien pinched his nose shut as he slowly made his way in, scanning the area. There was a door just around the corner but when Lucien tried opening it, it was completely locked. The floor was slightly slippery and the area just completely reeked of foul, rotten odor. Lucien did his best not to look to the side where some of the meat was left rotting from the broken meat case, being swarmed around by flies. Before Lucien could a take another step further, he heard a faint screech coming from Ernest.

 

He made his way towards where Ernest was supposed to be and found him looking a bit shell-shocked, like he’d seen a ghost just a second ago.

 

“What the hell happened?” Lucien asked.

 

Ernest pointed towards the ground near his shoe where a circular object was glistening with what seemed like slime. Lucien almost cringed once he saw what it was.

 

It was an eyeball.

 

Ernest nudged it with his shoe and inwardly cringed as he saw the thing slightly roll to the side.

 

“We done here?” He asked.

 

“Yeah.” Lucien nodded.

  

* * *

 

 

After a few minutes, they were able to gather all kinds of necessities and everything else that they could possibly need. They walked out of the market with Lucien carrying the heavy bag while swiftly brisk walking towards the street.

 

“Dude, could you wait up? Where the hell are we going anyway?” Ernest tried catching up to Lucien as he continued moving forward.

 

“We’ve gotta try and find the others. I got a feeling they made their visit to the market just recently.”

 

“But how the hell are we exactly gonna know where they are? Maple Bay is pretty fuckin’ huge.”

 

Lucien knew by heart that Maple Bay was a pretty vast district, despite everything being conveniently near or drivable within a span of minutes. The district was filled with different corners and such that he didn’t know where to look first. He merely depended on where his feet and sheer will would carry him for the next few

minutes. His mind was pondering on all kinds of scenarios about where the others might’ve ended up in. Yet other than that, he was determined to find whomever they could.

 

* * *

 

 

After walking for almost half an hour, searching around different routes and corners, Lucien was starting to feel a bit sore from walking around and carrying their bag of goods. Well, mostly Ernest’s goods. They’ve encountered a few more slowpokes lingering about from the sidewalks. They’ve had to cautiously sneak their way out of their presence. Ernest was starting to grow more and more annoyed and frustrated with how long they’ve been walking and finding nothing and no one in return.

 

“Dude, we’ve been walking for almost an hour. Seriously, I’m already fucking starving.” Ernest groaned.

 

Lucien rolled his eyes, stopping in his tracks.

 

“Does lil’ Ernest want his baby food now?” He mocked.

 

Ernest glared at Lucien in return.

 

“Fuck you. At least I’m doing better than starving my scrawny ass.” Ernest fired back.

 

Lucien ignored the remark and continued walking forward.

 

“It’s a miracle we haven’t run into any sneerers yet. We might as well just call it a day.” Ernest muttered.

 

“And what? Leave the others to fend for themselves out here?” Lucien retorted.

 

“How do you even know they’re gonna be out here?”

 

Lucien mustered a sigh.

 

“I don’t, okay?”

 

“So what the fuck are we supposed to do now?” Ernest scoffed.

 

Lucien noticed the sky getting a little darker from the last few minutes they’ve been walking around the city. It looked like it was about to pour down rain. He took another step down the lane before a flash of lightning rippled through the sky. And with that, he immediately surrendered to heading home for the day.

 

* * *

 

 

They headed back towards the route back to the cul-de-sac and within minutes, droplets of rain began pouring down the sky. Lucien and Ernest paced down the streets of the city, trying to make it out of the area as soon as possible.

 

Ernest had put on his hoodie once the raindrops started pouring down harder.

 

“You sure this is the way back?!” He called out.

 

From this point on, they didn’t even know which route they had to take back home.

 

“Yeah, this is-“ Before Lucien could make a turn from the sidewalk; something had stopped him in his tracks.

 

A figure emerged from the intersection, blocking the path. Lucien couldn’t even describe how it looked like. Its form was shaped like human except its face was all clawed up, making its eyes, nose and mouth nonexistent.

Instead of walking on its feet like any other zombie they’ve encountered, it was on all fours on the ground, crawling almost like an animal. It was frightening to look at to say the least.

 

“What the fuck.” Lucien and Ernest said in unison.

 

They backed away once it slowly started coming towards them. Its movements were a bit shaky but fast. They noticed it’s claw-like hands; fingers long and discolored into a dark hue, like the claws of a crow, except, they were far more disturbing to look at.

 

Lucien and Ernest were frozen out of fear from where they were both standing. The thing was twitching in front of them and pacing in random directions. Its movements were unpredictable. Ernest carefully grabbed his gun from behind, quietly stepping forward, despite Lucien’s silent pleas telling him not to.

 

“Ernest! Don’t!” He whispered.

 

The thing turned its head towards their direction and Ernest immediately stopped in his tracks. Ernest waited for a few seconds before cocking his gun forward. He had to hold his gun steady with two of his hands just to control his shaky movements down. Lucien clamped his mouth shut from making any other noise; his heart was beating at an erratic pace.

 

It started running towards Ernest, which made him pull the trigger unprepared.

He missed. It jumped and tackled Ernest towards the ground, with Ernest screaming for help.

 

“Lucien!” He screamed and screamed as the monster’s claws dug into his flesh more, almost piercing right in through his skin.

 

“Lucien!”

 

A gunshot echoed through the area.

 

 


End file.
